Review of The Virgin Suicides (2000) by Michael Y — 07 Jun 2011

Sofia Coppola writes and directs the book adaptation of a haunting story of adolescence and the lives of 5 girls that will never be fully known. It may be slow and not quite clear, but Sofia's beautiful filmmaking makes this movie as sad as it is intriguing.

The Vigin Suicides isn't so much about 5 girls who kill themselves, but of the boys who loved them, yet never knew them. The group of boys watch the developing lives of 4 girls after one of their sisters kills herself. Lux is the boys' main focus because of her free spirit and sexual ambition which will only lead the girls to a harsher living enviroment with their strict parents. Parts of this movie's story structure I find questionable, like, why is the focus only on Lux? (obviously played by one of the most famous child stars at the time, Kirsten Dunst. But I have no problem with that since this movie wasn't written specially for her) And I can understand why you're never really revealed too much about the girls, but this comming of age story doesn't really get us that familiar with the group of boys and the narrorator. I would have liked to get to know the boys a bit more. But it's the mystery element that makes this movie intriguing. Questions aren't really answered, and people's actions aren't really made clear to the audience. But that's the point. One never really can know what goes on in someone else's mind, especially that of a teenager. As a matter of fact, we can't really take everything to heart we see in this movie because it seems all the more romanticized by the narrorator. To adolescent boys, girls are mysterious and wonderful, but that's definitely not the case in this story if the girls meet a tragic end.

I love Sofia Coppola's work, (like father like daughter) and Sofia makes a very impressive first feature film. She definitely uses the bias memory of the narrorator as a key element for her directing. The pacing is slow, but mesmerizing. Mysterious, buy beautiful. Because the narrorator thinks so much of the girls, every memory of them looks like a dream. The lighting and abstract shots of beauty is interesting. But these shots are only ever seen through the boys' eyes. When we see events outside the narrorator's perspective, events seem cruel, not fantastic, not a dream, just..... life. But this movie never gets into the perspective of Lux or any of the other girls which is haunting enough because suicide without a reason is haunting to those who care about the deceased. The '70s setting is pretty well done, not destinguishingly '70s, but just enough to know, like the cloths, cars and vinyle records, but I was also informed that the phones used are different than traditional ones used in other films and tv shows, which is pretty interesting. And of coarse, because it's the '70s, the soundtrack is AWESOME. Well actually the soundtrack barely touches what the '70s had to offer when it came to music, but this movie isn't about the music, and you get a good soundtrack none the less.

Why did the girls kill themselves? (which is not a spoiler by the way) No one knows, nor will ever know. That's what is so haunting about this movie, how the narrorator recalls all the events about the girls who haunt his memory so. Because he and the other boys were the only ones who cared is what makes their story sad too, because they won't find the answers they're looking for. The Virgin Suicides is a mysterious story about the adolescent woman's mind and the boys' obsession that is intriguing all the way through and will make you ponder about the movie's events after it's over.